Pumpkin story

I thought you might enjoy this.
It's traditional (for me at least) to oust the pumpkins that have been decorating my house after Halloween is over. I've never had a problem with this formula until this year, where it has apparently been very popular with the squirrels.

Let me illustrate:

Indeed, this was not a human made jack-o-lantern. It started as just a few nibbles on the virgin orange flesh of my carefully picked pumpkin and it progressed, my friends, into this abomination.
I have it on good authority that the plump, one-eyed squirrel that lives in the trees around the apartment complex did it.

DAMN YOU SQUIRREL!!!

Ode to Osaka

Every once in a while I get a hankerin' for sushi that must not be ignored. My favorite place, hands down, to satisfy my sushi needs is Osaka in Greenbelt, MD.

Please note, I have played the field, so to speak. I've tried sushi joints far and wide and I have to say (with the exception of the ULTRA swank Kai in New York) Osaka is my favorite.

The reasons:
1) it is close.
2) the sushi always tastes delicious.
3) it's reasonably priced.
4) you get salad AND miso for dinner.
5) the service is excellent.
6) the beverage selection is very good.
7) the ambiance is everything you could want in a japanese restaurant.

They also have a Happy Hour! And, importantly, they are hip enough to have a website.

You Rock, Barack.

The votes have been tallied and we have our 44th President - Barack Obama.

I admit, I am one of those people that registered for the first time to vote for Obama. I even aligned myself as a Democrat so I could chip in for the primary. That's sort of a big deal for me, because I staunchly abhor any sort of affiliate for affiliation's sake. But in this instance, I made a very large exception.

Voting was a breeze today, though I hear it was not as nice for some other people. I live in a city that is politically active and full of old-guard free spirits/hippy types. So the whole process was surprisingly efficient. From the time I parked my car to the time I trotted away from the polling place only an hour had elapsed. Some of my co-workers we not so lucky - they were nearly 3 hours late to work.

I knew my County would carry Barack based on its demographic, but I was compelled to vote anyway. Not to be disappointed, when I got out of my car after driving home from watching most of the News, I was greeted with hooping and hollering and - yes - fireworks. PG County never fails to show its pride.

This election has given me a lot of faith: foremost in the somewhat alien "American People" with whom I don't feel very closely aligned. I have to say, I was pretty pessimistic about whether folks would be able to use their brain instead of falling back on primal fears. I've also got restored faith in The Process - my guy WON which means this whole election thing must not be as broken as I was lead to believe 4 or 8 years ago.

But mostly I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the days after. Things won't be easy and they won't be pretty but it will be brave and new and I think that kind of lean and hungry attitude is what we really need.

ENGAGE

The Story:

So It was the Eve of Halloween and I was having kind of a tough day. My fella was going to come see me so I asked if he could bring some hot chocolate.
So he shows up and tells me to stay in my room while he gets the hot chocolate ready. I thought it was a little odd, but I can sometimes be a not very bright girl..

Regardless, in a few minutes he comes out - not with hot chocolate - but with a BRAND NEW MacBook. When he opens it, the desktop background is a picture of him with a sign that says "Will You Marry Me?" and a ring on the keyboard.

I said yes, of course. :)

Halloween!!

Important details to come but, for the moment, some pictures.

We ended up going to a gallery opening consisting of "Dead of the Dead" inspired art above an Ethiopian Restaurant. It was pretty good - though once over it we went to the old bar haunts: The Black Cat - Red Room, and The 9:30 Club - Back Bar. I'm not sure how we managed it, but we ended up getting home around 3am.

Doctor Diatribe

Let me preface this story by saying: I am a bit of a workaholic and don't take sick days very often. So the fact that I took work off today alone should say something about the issue.

I wanted to take a moment to diatribe about doctors. I hate them and do not trust them or respect them. I mean, I do respect them as human beings. But I do not intellectually buy in to the idea that they know more than I do, although I apparently do in practice. What am I talking about?

Well, I took off work today because I have been feeling especially sick for the past two days. I say especially because for the paste several months my neck has been giving me trouble. You might remember that I had something hacked out my neck last year. I have now had recurring issues where my throat feels swollen, like someone is jabbing their finger in to the surrounding muscles (and whatever lymph nodes and other weird things are around there). Sometimes this will be accompanied by feeling flushed.
So I go to the doctors today to get this stuff checked out. And I tell him "and I cyst taken out of my neck" yadda yadda. You'd think a doctor would say "oh, she has a pre-existing condition" and send me to a ear nose and throat doctor who knows things. But no. He suggests I take allergy medicine, and has me get blood taken because I walk my dog and maybe a tick bit me.

Nice.

Of course I had absolutely no spine, and should have said "hey, give me a referral will you or a soft tissue xray". But I didn't. I just did what he told me. Which is annoying because I know two weeks from now I'll just be back in there with my neck still feeling obnoxious.

The Halloween Tree

It's pretty much mandatory for me to read Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree every October. It's the book that got me interested in the writing of Bradbury in general, and of course, focuses on my favorite holiday topic.

I was first acquainted with it because The Cartoon Network made it into a movie (part 1, courtesy of YouTube!), and the voice of Mr. Moundshroud was done by Leonard Nimoy. My Pappy was a big video person (one room of his house was lined with VHS) and this was one of the titles on the shelf.

Because the quip "the book was better" is almost always true, I decided to look up the book online. And it was true - the book WAS better. It is, in fact, one of my most favorite books of all times. Which you would think is weird - I mean, technically I guess it's a young adult book. But the writing style of Bradbury is so rich in imagery and poem, and the scenes the book goes through are just so aesthetically please to me, that the pretty standard plot (kids, saving their friend) doesn't pinch the intellect.

Anyway - I'm going to start reading it tonight and I highly recommend you get your hands on it.